Timothy Smith gets 50 years for murder

WOODSTOCK – Locking eyes with the man convicted of killing his brother, Scott Milliman said he never got to hear the slain main's last words or see his last breath.

Timothy S. Smith, 28, was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years in prison. A jury previously found him guilty of first-degree murder for the death of Kurt Milliman over Memorial Day weekend in 2011.

"I hope you spend the rest of your life in prison, never being able to forget my brother Kurt's name," Scott Milliman said through tears and stuttered breaths. "… You took away a very good man from us."

During Smith's February trial, prosecutors said he placed an online ad for sex with his wife, Kimberly Smith, to which Kurt Milliman responded.

Kimberly Smith testified that she was pregnant at the time and didn't want to have sex with Kurt Milliman, but when she refused, he grabbed her arm and slapped her in the face. That's when Timothy Smith came around a corner of their Woodstock-area home with a .38-caliber handgun and shot the former courthouse security officer once in the back, she said.

"He disseminates images of his pregnant wife on the Internet, and invites [a man] to have sex with her. And if that's not enough, he shot an unarmed man in the back," said Assistant State's Attorney Michael Combs, chief of the criminal division.

Smith had at least 50 traffic violations and seven misdemeanors on his criminal record, Judge Sharon Prather said before sentencing the man, showing that he has a "total disregard for the law and authority."

Kimberly Smith testified against her husband in exchange for limited immunity, meaning prosecutors agreed that anything she said on the stand would not be used against her.

She later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, a Class 4 felony, and is yet to be sentenced. Prosecutors dropped additional charges against her, including obstruction of justice and prostitution, as part of the plea deal. Kimberly Smith was never charged with murder.

Prosecutors have said Timothy Smith staged the incident to look like a break-in.

"How can you let someone lie there and bleed on the ground … while you stage things," Milliman's niece, Jessica Milliman, asked during emotional testimony at the sentencing.

Timothy Smith has maintained that he was acting in self-defense and that he didn't intend to shoot the man but was protecting his wife.

When asking for the minimum sentence, Smith's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Kim Messer, said that while behind bars, Timothy Smith had turned his life around. He has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and parenting classes.

"I am fully aware that words alone cannot, and will not, undo the damage that I have caused," Timothy Smith said Wednesday in front of a packed courtroom. He also apologized to Milliman's family and his own. "I can say I am a different man."

In what Messer called "a bit of irony," while in McHenry County Jail, Messer said Timothy Smith came to the aid of inmate who is believed to have nearly overdosed from heroin.

"Recently Mr. Smith, when presented with an emergency situation, saved the life of another inmate while in custody here at the jail," she said.

Timothy Smith performed CPR on the inmate, who is said to have obtained heroin that was smuggled into the jail. Three men have been charged in that incident.

"It's nice he saved the life of a heroin addict but didn't save the life of Kurt Milliman after he shot him," Combs said outside the courtroom.

Smith is expected to be transferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections on June 19.